The Bear

 Dear John,

So, it seems there was a black bear wandering through your mom's neighborhood!  She still refers to the previous Chief of Police as the owner of a particular house, though I think a few people have been through there since he left.  Anyway, it was in his yard.  She sent some pictures in the group chat.  I sent a text, telling her that I hoped she wasn't gardening today, but your brother (or his wife) sent your niece over to tell her in person.  I don't think your mom believed her.  

When I picked up our mail after our vacation, I was very surprised to find multiple checks in the mail.  The Army has finally processed my request for your pension.  As the Army does, they caught me up from the date of your death (which is kinda funny, since, at the time, I was not eligible to collect both the DIC and your pension.  But they changed the rules in 2023, so that was a nice surprise.)  Though they insisted that a direct deposit form be part of the packet I submitted, I continue to get paper checks.  One of my friends (who does Army HR) said they do that to make sure the right person is getting the checks before they move to the automated system.  

I was going to go on a big political rant, but I will suffice it to say that I feel a lot better with the energy that that Harris/Walz ticket is bringing.  I know you did not like Harris, but you also didn't vote.  So, too bad.  Plus, you definitely did not respond well to women in positions of authority.  Also too bad.

Now, on to the bad news.  I put my engagement ring on to wear for S's senior pictures.  When I came home, the diamond was gone.  I'm very upset about this, but then again, you kind of ruined the moment when you proposed to yourself with it anyway.  I took it to Roger's and Holland's for the insurance estimate, so I'm waiting for that to come through.  I don't know if I'll replace it, replace it with a lab created diamond, get something entirely different, or use some of the gemstones that you bought on a whim and make a different memorial ring.  It's not like I wore my engagement ring much after S was born - it stuck out too far, and I was afraid to scratch her.  Then my fingers got too fat.  Then you had it resized, but we never went anywhere, so I still didn't wear it.  Of course, the one time I pull it out...

S is getting her wisdom teeth out this month.  The dogs are also getting dental services.  It's a good thing I got all that Army money, because it's going to be an expensive month.  S's senior pictures turned out pretty gorgeous.  I'm still waiting for the go-ahead to post them.  As usual, she doesn't like most of them, but I think they're all great.  Well, maybe there are a couple that aren't the best.  But her not-the-best is still pretty great.

She was at work tonight, and they ended up with 50 or so extra hot dogs.  We were trying to find a homeless shelter to give them to, but there's only one near here, and it's in a really bad location.  I called two different cop shops to try and get them to take them to the shelter, but they're too busy doing nothing.  (The state police said they only had 5 guys on tonight for 6 counties.  Guess it's time to go speeding!)  Oh well, I gave it my best shot.  The other closest shelters are not in too great of areas either, and they don't answer their phones.  It's hard to give stuff away sometimes.  I guess I could have hit up the lady who's always chasing down the unhoused people to take photos of them to post on FB and invite them to her church.  Maybe next time...or maybe we should find out where the bear went, and leave them out for him!  I think he went east today. 

Love,

A

Road Trip!

 Dear John,

As S says all the time...Tell me why I filled out all the Direct Deposit information REQUIRED by the Army for your pension application and they have now sent me 4 paper checks.  Sigh.  Anyway, I am now collecting your Army pension, so that's good news.  

We just got back from our trip to the West Coast - we stayed with my cousin in San Francisco.  You would have loved her house.  The views are spectacular, and the house is old and charming and full of wonderful details.  It's on quite a hill though.  It was very comfy, and I hope I will be able to go back.  We also saw my other cousin.  I think I overwhelmed her with people, and she didn't have much to say.  S and I both noticed that her husband is SUPER fake.  S said she saw him laugh, and then turn away and immediately frown.  But she seems to like him, so that's what counts.  I got to meet their dog, who is adorable.  She never goes home to visit her family, and I wonder why.  I can't imagine maintaining that kind of distance - I even see the sister I don't like at least every other year.

After driving down Lombard street (which is a series of switchbacks) and stopping at Treasure Island to see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge (which you can also see from my cousin's house), we went to my cousin's art show in Berkeley.  It was pretty cool.  I wish I were more social - I would enjoy living in a place like that.  But everything is so tightly packed and I don't really want to be that close to people any more.  I did have to contribute $0.75 to my cousin - the former president's name can't be mentioned in her house, and I did it 3X by accident.  In my defense, we were there the day he was "shot."  I'm not buying that he got hit by a bullet.  

Next, we started out driving towards Seattle along CA-1.  I was PETRIFIED.  It was so steep and curvy and winding.  I was thinking of you and our trip to see the Giant Sequoias and Hearst Castle and Santa Barbara and the wine ghetto in Lodi.  You did all the driving, and I was happy for it.  We had a Cadillac CT-5 to drive.  It was nice, but not something I would want to buy.  I'm pretty sure the brakes were shot by the time we turned it in.  

As we drove, I kept saying "I should stop at the scenic overlook" as I drove by - S finally said "Just stop somewhere!"  So, I turned, and the next thing you know, we're on a 2 hour detour to see a lighthouse I had no intention of stopping at.  It was pretty cool, and we were maybe 30 feet from a coyote hanging out on the hillside and 70 feet from the deer at the top of the hill.  Then we had to walk down (and then back up) 313 stairs to the lighthouse.  I thought I was gonna die on the way back up.  But it was a pretty cool place.

We drove up the coast.  Stayed in a dump in Fort Bragg - people were having a screaming argument in the parking lot, but you could see the ocean, and we picked up some sea glass at the beach.  The next day, we drove through a tree (lame) and then stopped at the roadside attraction that inspired Gravity Falls, which is S's favorite show.  We've watched it in its entirety at least 3 times.  We drove up another mountain to hike on an easy trail.  S and her friend (I let her invite her friend, as I thought it would be more fun for her, and it wouldn't cost much more.) got dressed up to take Instagram pictures at sunset on the beach.  It was a pretty spectacular night.

The next day, we went to another roadside attraction, but this one was a trail that had elevated walkways in the trees.  It was really cool.  They had a lot of chainsaw sculptures.  They had a tram up to the top of the mountain, and the scenery there was amazing.  We walked around twice to get our $30 worth.  Then we drove into Oregon.  We stayed in Bandon, at an adorable little motel.  You would have hated it - you could hear road noise all night.  But it was really cute, inside and out.  I had no idea there was so much sand in Oregon.  We stopped at scenic overlooks, took some hikes down to beaches, walked through a cave to get to a different beach, saw Haystack Rock (from The Goonies), but from waaaaay down the beach because...parking.  Then our next hotel called to say they were leaving early, and sent us contactless check-in info.  You might have liked that aspect, and they had a fan available to drown out road noise.  

We drove up the Washington state coast, but didn't really get to see the ocean at all.  It was like driving through a botanical garden, though, so you would have enjoyed that.  We went to Forks WA, since S wanted to live out her Twilight dreams.  That's really what inspired the trip - when we were on the Alaskan cruise last year, and we were nearing Victoria, Canada, she noted that we were near Forks and she wanted to go.  Forks was hilarious - it is 100% Twilight all the time.  I hated the first book and think the movies are ridiculous.  But the town was fun.  Then we headed to Seattle.  When we got in, we were confronted with the great Crowdstrike Windows breakdown of 2024.  The hotel's credit card swipers weren't working.  I thought "eh - they'll get this stuff all under control by Sunday when we leave!"

We went to Pike Place market and wandered around there for a while.  I think the girls were just tired of being on vacation by then, because they really just wanted to do nothing.  S and I went for a walk by Lake Washington and then we went out for dinner.  

The next day we were headed home.  I was a bit anxious about getting there and trying to make sure we didn't get bumped from our flight.  Thousands of flights had been cancelled, so I was concerned.  We got to the airport 2.5 hours before our flight.  S and her friend went and got some lunch.  I had just wandered off to find something to eat and came across this GIANT line.  By the time I got to the end of it, I found out I needed to join it, because our flight got cancelled.  It was a nightmare.  I had the dogs to worry about (fortunately, my friend's daughter was watching them for the weekend, and was able to continue).  S was supposed to go to registration for school and get her senior pictures.  But we were stuck in Seattle.  I stood in the line (S came and kept me company while her friend watched the luggage) for 7 hours.  I called my sister, since she's had pretty much every travel experience, and she told me to get on the phone, and text line.  I talked to someone after 3 hours who said the best they could do was get us on a flight on Wednesday.  I figured I'd need to stay in line for hotel vouchers anyway, so I stood there for another 3 hours.  When I finally was able to talk to someone, she was super nice (considering the number of frantic people she had to deal with) and helpful.  I gave her a bunch of options to get us home sooner.  We ended up flying into Chicago the next morning.  She told us to make sure to get to the airport early - I was like...our flight is in 12 hours - we're not leaving!  We found some "loungers" to sort of sleep in.  We had one for each of us eventually, but S gave hers up to some dude who clearly had THE WORST sleep apnea.  He snore/choked himself awake approximately every 15 seconds.  It was insane.  I bought the girls dinner, snacks, and some blankets.  We got into Chicago around 1:30pm and my sister picked us up.  She dropped me off to get a rental car.  Then I went to her house to get the girls (and see her dogs 😁) and head for home.  I got about half way before I was falling asleep.  Fortunately, S's friend can sleep anywhere, so she was well-rested and she was able to drive the rest of the way home while I took a couple quick catnaps.  

We drove her home, and then had to go to the airport to drop off the car, and pick up ours.  Our luggage had been checked the day before, and I got a notification that it was at the airport, so we stopped to see if we could get it.  It wasn't actually there, and your daughter had a complete breakdown, because she needed her shampoo and conditioner, so she could shower and be ready for her ID picture for school the next day.  I wanted to kill her, dump her body, and go home and go to bed.  I was supposed to work the next day.  But the luggage was supposedly on the next flight, so if we just waited half an hour, we could get it!  Finally, I gave up on the idea of going to work, and we hung out at the airport waiting for luggage.  We finally got 2/3 of the bags and got home around 1 am.  The baggage guy was like "I've been up since 6."  Oh yeah, dude?  I've been up since 6 YESTERDAY.  The other bag finally showed up, and they couriered it over to us at 11:15 pm.  

On the plus side, Delta covered all our extra expenses within a week, and refunded our checked bag fees too.  So while it was a hassle, I was impressed with their response.  

All in all, aside from the return trip (again - those have been difficult), it was a fantastic vacation.  Now I'm going to have to wait until next year to plan anything else.  If I retire, it might be a solo trip.  S doesn't want to take any time off school, and she's going on her European senior trip in the summer.  Then she'll be off to college.  Lots of changes coming along.  

Well, this is long.  I have more to tell you, but I will wait for resolution on a couple issues first, I guess.  I miss you.

Love, 

A